A few sample verses from Golden Arm... a kids horror story

I am at the beginning of another poem, but am not too sure whether it may be too scary for children, here are a couple of verses - I would be very interested to know what you think.

Its not set in stone yet, so a lot of this may change. Its based on a ghost story that I was told when I was about 5 or 6 and have never forgotten.

There is an old general who loses his arm in the war and has it replaced with an arm made of gold. On his death bed he demands that his wife burries the arm with him and the wife reluctantly agrees. However his wife doesn't want to see that much gold disappear forever, so she digs up his grave and takes the arm back and that very same evening the ghost of her husband returns to reclaim his arm.

The verses below are when the wife realises she is not alone in the house.


Her face turned an ashen, pale, light shade of yellow
As she heard the voice growl from the bowels of the cellar
A voice full of menace and full of alarm
That repeated quite softly
" Where is my arm"

What was that sound? Was it really his ghost?
As she nibbled and nibbled on the cold piece of toast
The thump, and the thud, of the feet on the stairs
The type of sound found in your darkest nightmares.

And now the voice called from behind the closed door
The ghost of her husband? but could she be sure?
She turned the key quick and made sure it was locked
As the ghost clenched his fist and he knocked and he knocked.


As I said its just a doodle at the moment, but I would love to finish it and read it out to a slightly older audience. As you can imagine there is a punchline. that will hopefully scare the Bjeezus out of the listener.